Use Case Study Ohl: Taxonomic Descriptions and Digitization of Apoid Wasps from the MfN Collection

M. Ohl, Museum für Naturkunde Berlin (MfN), is a world-leading specialist on the taxonomy and systematics of aculeate (stinging) Hymenoptera, with special emphasis on apoid wasps. He has contributed to the Hymenoptera Anatomy Ontology (HAO), one of the rare examples for ontology-based terminologies in insects (Steltman et al. 2012). He is also involved in the TIGER project, a survey of the insects of Thailand. The resulting material of apoid wasps comprise of at least 50 undescribed species, which are currently being taxonomically described by the Ohl lab. The Ohl lab will directly contribute to objectives O1-O5 and O7.

Use Case Study Decher: Taxonomic Descriptions and Digitization of West African Crocidurine shrews from the ZFMK Collection

J. Decher, Zoological Research Museum Alexander Koenig Bonn (ZFMK), focuses on West African small mammal zoogeography, systematics and conservation and has frequently worked on applied projects such as baseline and environmental impact assessment in the Upper Guinea Region. One of the challenges has been the identification of morphologically rather similar crocidurine shrews in that region, for which only two outdated identification keys exist (Meester & Setzer 1971, Hutterer & Happold 1983). The Decher lab will directly contribute to objectives O1-O5 and O7.

The focus of the research group ‘Arthropod Evolutionary Morphology (ArtEM)’ at the University of Rostock is on the nervous system and circulatory system in arthropods (e.g., Wirkner & Richter 2004, 2010; Stegner & Richter 2011, Fritsch & Richter 2012) and their description using various techniques, particularly CT and cLSM and semi-thin sections. All these techniques result in 3D-raw data (image stacks, volume data, movies etc.), which represent the primary source for descriptions. The Richter lab has experience with standardizing morphological terminology (Richter et al. 2010 for the nervous system; Wirkner et al. in progress for the circulatory system [OArCS, Ontology of the Arthropod Circulatory System; part of the Arthropod Ontology Consortium, Deans et al.]) and has developed meta data standards regarding preparation methods for a lab-internal repository. The Richter lab will directly contribute to objectives O1, O3-O4, and O8.

The project Historical Structural Investigations in the Laboratory is one of the base projects of the “Image Knowledge Gestaltung. An Interdisciplinary Laboratory” cluster of excellence at the Humboldt University Berlin. The project attempts to utilize morphological legacy data from the old literature of natural sciences from between 1870 and 1930, with an emphasis on structure-function relationships. The project's hypothesis is that these historical strata (in the form of literature, but also objects in the Museum für Naturkunde and the Museum of Applied Arts) contain important new ideas for the realm of bio-inspired, materials-research oriented structural research (Fratzl & Weiner 2010). The MatR group will directly contribute to objectives O1, O3-O4, and O9.